Brief Disclaimer: Some of the products and services on this post may offer compensation for referrals. For the products and services that do not receive compensation, there are referred simply because I think these products and services and useful and will be convenient to have.

May’s paychecks came out to a total of $4,077.62, with two paychecks coming in at $1,028.72 each, a work award at $1,000, a per-diem check at $871, travel and phone reimbursements of $108 and $32 each, a deposit of $6, and some measly interest increases that don’t even make up $1.

Last month, I mentioned that I wasn’t going to receive any more per-diem checks. But now, I will be receiving them because I switched to a different project that is not based at my home office.

Luckily, this can help me save up more for a down payment or even a new car (as mine was stolen back in January).

In terms of side businesses, I haven’t quite worked on any and I’m not sure if I would want to as I would rather just coast my way to Financial Independence and Early Retirement instead of losing hours of sleep and making my body work more (I may be getting some white hairs, but I gotta check it out to see if I do).

The first item on the list is Restaurants! The old habit of eating out that I can’t seem to shake off… yet.

In terms of eating, I don’t actually see myself reducing my spend in eating out yet… until I get settled in an apartment or if food is provided for free at the hotel.

So let’s just say that this is expected…

However! There is something I can do, which is saving food for another meal.

So instead of eating a whole foot long of Subway, I can split it among two meals and “potentially” save $6 (there aren’t five dollar foot longs anymore unfortunately).

General Merchandise: $217.49

In terms of general merchandise, I purchased a vacuum for my mother for Mother’s Day.

It’s supposedly one of the best vacuums on the market according to Amazon’s Best-Seller List.

I’m not entirely sure if it’s actually that good, but I’ll ask her when I visit home for Father’s Day.

It does, however, have some great reviews on Amazon and was pretty affordable.

Transportation: $76.00

In Transportation, I spent $76 on DiscoveryMundo, which is a Airport Shuttle and Transportation Service, in order to be transported to a resort hotel for my vacation.

It was eventually reimbursed because my friend paid me back since I booked the tickets to our vacation spot for free. I’ll have a travel report and a guide on how I did it soon!

The travel costs, if not paid with points, would total up to more than $2,000! And since we did pay with points, we essentially paid $0!

Service Charges: $75.66

For Service Charges, I was billed the annual fee of my Chase Hyatt Credit Card for $75.00 and a Vanguard fee of $0.66.

The Chase Hyatt Credit Card is an amazing credit card because I had used it for two free nights at the hotel resort I briefly mentioned above.

More on that trip will come later!

But if you’re interested in the Chase Hyatt Credit Card, you can currently get it with the offer of 2 free nights at any Hyatt hotel or resort after you make $2,000 on purchases in the first three
months after account opening.

The other great thing is that you are automatically upgraded to Discoverist Status and you get 1 free night a year! The annual fee for this card is $75 and it is definitely worth keeping.

For the Vanguard fee, it was more of a withdrawal after they deposited small amounts into my account to confirm it. It was so I can transfer more money into my Vanguard Brokerage Account.

Travel: $40.07

In terms of travel, I spent $40.07 on a few Lyft and Uber rides.

Luckily, these rides were also reimbursable and were for work. The only reason they were charged on my personal card was because I had forgot to switch my profile back to my business card.

I don’t typically use FreedomPop as my main mobile service and I decided to try it out.

Unfortunately, I didn’t quite use it and forgot to cancel the trial. But I sent a support ticket in and got a refund of the $32.98 that I was charged.

Online Services: $10.00

For Online Services, the $10.00 is the hosting cost of Smart Provisions at Digital Ocean, a cloud infrastructure provider. It’s not much, but it’s the amount I pay for full access of my VPS (virtual private server).

With that, my net worth increased to $169,147.69 from $159,508.69, which is an increase of $9,639.00 or a 6.02% increase!

2017 Financial Goals Status Check

If you remember back in my December Net Worth Report, I had written about a few goals I wanted to achieve. If you don’t remember, that’s alright as I’ll be writing them below so you can follow along as well!

Spend less than $20,000 and downsize as much as possible.

Current Spending YTD: $7,732.19

Status: On Track!

Thoughts: Still possible to make it, just need to reduce my spending a little.

Make my budget line-items more clear and not vague.

Current Line-Items: Pretty clear.

Status: On Track!

Thoughts: I think I am doing well on this, as I have been breaking down what I by line-by-line.

Try to reach $200,000 Net Worth by the end of the year.

Current Net Worth YTD: $169,147.69

Status: On Track!

Thoughts: I am now gettign per-diem checks again, so $200,000 might be possible!

Finally, here’s a status report of how 2017 is going with my finances.

Categories

Income

Expenses

Net Worth

January

$2,608.84

$773.17

$125,986.32

February

$5,101.49

$1,267.00

$137,394.84

March

$6,857.43

$2,696.15

$151,622.88

April

$3,572.48

$2,219.59

$159,508.69

May

$4,077.62

$776.28

$169,147.69

Average

$4,443.57

$1,546.43

--

Year To Date

$22,217.86

$7,732.19

--

Recap

Overall, I would say that I did pretty well for May. I lowered my expenses drastically and am back on the road for work, so I will have some extra income from per-diem.

My net worth increased by 6.04% from $159,508.69 to $169,147.69.

How did you guys do in May? Have you been keeping up with your goals and resolutions? Let me know in the comments below!

If you aren’t already tracking your accounts or net worth, check out Personal Capital! It’s an amazing online tool that provides great visualizations and is easy to use!

JOIN THE NEWSLETTER

Join the community to receive our newsletters and insider updates on how to build wealth, travel hack, and live life simply. It's complete free and always will be.

We hate spam. Your email address will not be sold or shared with anyone else.